Have I lost a lot of money doing so? Hell yeah! I did, but I believe it’s a good amount to pay to learn about yourself and what you really want to do in life. In whatever business, be it being online, knowing yourself is probably the most important thing you need to know to really become successful. Successful entrepreneurs know themselves what their capabilities are and most importantly what they can and want to do.

 

Website Developer

As a website developer, I started outsourcing for clients, however I realized that it’s not me it’s not who I am or what I want to be. Is outsourcing a lucrative business? Maybe it is, but because my passion and interest was not there, I don’t think I have done a really good job about it. I have seen and heard a lot of success stories on it but it’s just not me.

Blogger

I think I have done great here, although the benefit is not monetary, it was more of learning and recording what I do.  Also my developing skills with WordPress has been better, I’ve learned so much in developing in the past year than my learning in University in programming (LOL!). I have earned money thru it and am learning more each day as to the business aspect of it. I’m currently learning more on this and hopefully it could become a lucrative business.

Domainer

I was really excited on this opportunity, it felt really like buying properties. Somehow there’s always a vision of the property’s value increasing that makes you feel that it’s must be a big thing to be in. I have learned so much on this especially on the SEO aspect of domains. I understood the power and use of domains in a project and I’ve learned to respect brands by just their domains.

Affiliate marketer and Online marketing

I don’t really earn much as an affiliate marketer, I earn a few bucks here and there but nothing really major. My first impression was that you build a niche website and traffic will come and so does the money. However, it was not so and building a website for it is really tricky and is a whole new different ballgame. I realized that it isn’t me and what I want to build is something people will stay longer in and have value for the user (aside from the offer of course).

My direction now is to focus on focusing on a few specific websites with just one website focused on building. I think to really make money, I do have to think beyond the money and focus on building great websites with a good potential in monetizing. I hope to find my own lucky break soon =)

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Making Great and Useful Websites
2. Partnering Web 2.0 Developers develop Domainer’s Generic Domain Names
3. Developing Minisites: How to develop a good minisite for your domain names

What I truly like about dotPH’s new registrar console is that I can access it from different browsers, which really saves me a lot of time. Also the console is much more of a web 2.0 design, which is very user friendly and simple to use. It is also equipped with AJAX so no need to have the long loading time the page whenever some changes needs to be done. Here are some of the screenshots:

– dotPH Registrar Console (Manage Domains) –

– dotPH domain management –

 

– The most awaited feature (Editing multiple domain’s nameserver) –

 

I was very pleased to see a lot of features which I would’ve wanted to see before. Having spent a year using the console before, it was really time consuming. This time, registrar’s are going to appreciate how easy it is to use this system. I particularly like the editing multiple nameserver feature, which really is something I always wanted after registering a lot of domains (Finally!). However, as my focus leads me elsewhere, you’ll notice that on the first screenshot, my domains are in red. This means that a lot of my domains are expiring and I have no intention to renew. I would just keep a few and focus on developing them. I’ll be announcing my new website development here very soon.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Where dotPH should improve on
2. dotPH using unregistered and unused (.COM.PH, .PH, .NET.PH, .ORG.PH) domain names for online advertising for companies
3. Observations with my dotPH investments in .ph and .com.ph domains

Writing Great Minisite Contents

Minisite Contents will be your main source of traffic thru SEO, what’s important is that we all learn how to write effectively for Search Engine purposes, as well as, for your visitors as well. What you need to really think of when writing is that you should know how to target the right keywords and add supporting keywords to further increase its effectivity.

Step 1: Know your Keywords

You first need to understand the keywords that you’re targeting, you need to know which keywords you should mainly target and the supporting keywords. In this example, for the domain PrinterCart.net, You’d want to obviously target the main keywords, Printer cart and Printer carts. Other keywords, such as Printer Ink cart or HP Printer cart, are supporting keywords that should help you out in targeting and getting the getting ranking in Search Engines.

Step 2: Research, Research, Research…

Take time to research and find out more about the topic you’re writing. Normally, experts recommend that you write based on your interest, this way you write great content as you share your own expertise. You really need to think about your visitors when doing so, remember it’s your visitors that you really write for and what visitors will value. So find out as much as you can and put yourself in the shoes of a visitor, ask yourself, is this information enough?

Step 3: Start Writing

After Researching, you’re now ready to start writing the contents. Whenever I write contents for minisites, I always follow a my own set of rules which is simple yet it does the job quite well.

1. People vs Search Engines

Remember that we should be writing for people than only for search engines. Even if you get the traffic from Search Engines, when people read even just the first sentence it will already be a “Read or close the window / tab”. What we want is that visitors spend as much time as they will / can in our minisite. That way, we can encourage more clicks in PPC ads and encourage repeat visits.

2. Bold

Search Engines value different texts in a website depending on what it’s tagged with. What search engines really give weight to, are words that are bolded. What you need to do is to bold the keyword that you’re targetting to ensure that search engines know what you’d want them to give more weight to.

3. 3 – 5% keyword

Before I used to think that for me to get great traffic, all I need to do is to keep repeating / stuff my article with the same keyword over and over. However, instead of doing myself good, I’ve just got myself ranking lowly in the search results. The reason for that is that Google penalizes websites that overstuff their websites with the same keyword. What you’d need to do is to only repeat the exact keywords you’re targeting only 3 – 5% of the article’s Word Count. For example, If I was targeting “Printer Cart” in a 100 words article, then I can only repeat it 3 – 5 times in the article.

4. Supporting Keywords

Since you can only repeat keywords by 3 – 5%, what you need to do is to focus on looking for synonyms / similar keywords for the word to even help it up. For example, in PrinterCart.net, you could add words like Printers, Printer Ink etc.

5. Adding and Naming Images

Images are also crucial to a minisite, what you need to do is to look for stock photos available (Free Stock Photo Website, SXC.hu) and download images from there. What you need to do next is to rename it first to the keyword you’re targeting. For example, I’d name an image Printer-cart.jpg when I upload to PrinterCart.net. There are a huge number of traffic that I get from image searches from Google, and it will also help you in your quest for SEO.

6. Linking to your other Posts

Internal linking is important in a website to rank highly in SEO. What you can do is to find keywords in your current article that best describes your other article and link it to the other. For example, If I have “HP Printer Cart” in my 100 word article, and I also have written about HP Printer Carts, I need to convert it to a link to the article about HP Printer Carts. And as you have the YARPP (Yet Another Related Post Plugin, in Part 3)  plugin for WordPress, it automatically generates it for you at the end of every post. If you

7. Adding Videos

If you can, you could also find supporting videos that can help you bring more value to visitors. The best thing is that videos are free and can be embedded to your minisite, all you have to do is to copy the embed code, Go to the “HTML” tab in the “add new post” page and paste the code where you want it to appear. As your goal is to bring value to your human visitors, adding videos to support your article is just a great way to give more value.

Step 4:Filling up the necessary Fields

After filling up the Title and writing the content for the post, don’t publish your post just yet. You need to fill up 3 more fields to make sure that you make the most of it in Search engines:

1. Fill Up All-in-One SEO

It is important that you fill up the All-in-one SEO fields on the bottom of the post box. This will help you to optimize your page to Search Engines and get higher rankings. You need to fill up 3 things:

• Title – Copy and Paste from above
• Description – I usually copy and paste the whole article from the content, but it would be best to have a 1 paragraph summary of your whole post in there.
• Keywords – Depending on the keywords I target, I would usually add in all the keywords separated with a Comma ( , ).

2. Add Post tags

From the All-In-One SEO “Keywords”, I just copy and paste all the keywords and add it as my post tags.

3. Categories

It would be a great way for you to exploit this to your targeted keywords, this could be done by using the main keywords as your categories in your posts. Again, more for SEO benefits.

Step 5: How much Content / Articles should I add?

One of the questions I had when making a minisite was how much content / articles do I need in a minisite? I cannot fully say how many will be enough this is because of many factors. For example, you could have 3 really long articles of 1000 words each that ranks highly than a minisite that has 10 short articles. The point here is to think “Quality over Quantity”. However, you do have to think that competitors are going to come one day and you better prepare yourself for the worse. What’s typical is about 5 articles per minisite, however I go a little bit further and add 20, this way I have a buffer and in case competitors come along, I know my minisite’s prepared.

Step 6: Add Minisite Pages

You need to add pages in your minisite (Under Dashboard, Pages > Add New), the purpose is to add credibility and allow visitors to contact you. These are the necessary pages that you need:

• About Page – What I usually add in my minisites is a 1 paragraph description and its purpose. This is to add credibility to your minisite.
• Contact Us Page – You can use the Contact form 7 plugin to make this. All you have to do is to Add a new page (Pages > Add New), and place the code “[contact-form-7]” in the post box. Preview the page and you have an instant contact us page.
• Terms of Service / Privacy Policy Page - These pages are meant to protect you from legal cases that could arise, while it is also a legal requirement in certain countries. But what’s important is that people say that it is something that Search Engines look for and gives weight to.

Example of Terms of Service Page:

Terms of Service
By using and/or accessing the Site, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following Terms and Conditions (the “Agreement”). Please review the following terms of this Agreement carefully. If you do not agree to this Agreement in its entirety, you are not authorized to use this Site in any manner or form.

1. Acceptance of Agreement. You agree to the terms and conditions outlined in this Agreement with respect to your use of the Site. This Agreement, together with the Site Privacy Policy, constitute the entire and only agreement between you and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE with respect to your use of the Site, and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, warranties and/or understandings with respect to the Site. We may amend this Agreement from time to time in our sole discretion, without specific notice to you. The latest Agreement will be posted on the Site, and you should review this Agreement prior to using the Site. By your continued use of the Site, you hereby agree to all the terms and conditions contained within the Agreement effective at that time. Therefore, you should regularly check this page for updates and/or changes.

2. Requirements. The Site is available only to individuals who can enter into legally binding contracts under applicable law. The Site is not intended for use by individuals under eighteen (18) years of age. If you are under eighteen (18) years of age and/or not a citizen of the United States, you do not have permission to use and/or access the Site.
3. License Grant. As a user of this Site, you are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable and limited license to access and use the Site and associated Site content in accordance with this Agreement.  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE may terminate this license at any time for any reason. You may use the Site on one computer for your own personal, non-commercial use. No part of the Site may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronic or mechanical. You may not use, copy, emulate, clone, rent, lease, sell, modify, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or transfer the Site, Site content or any portion thereof.  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE reserves any rights not explicitly granted in this Agreement. You may not use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site. You may not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE infrastructure. Your right to use the Site is not transferable.
4. Proprietary Rights. The content, organization, graphics, design, compilation, magnetic translation, digital conversion, software, services and other matters related to the Site are protected under applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary (including, but not limited to, intellectual property) rights. The copying, redistribution or publication by you of any part of the Site is strictly prohibited. You do not acquire ownership rights to any content, document, software, services or other materials viewed at or through the Site. The posting of information or material at the Site by  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE does not constitute a waiver of any right in such information and/or materials.
5. Editing, Deleting and Modification. We reserve the right in our sole discretion to edit and/or delete any documents, information or other content appearing on the Site.
6. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE, its parents, subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their respective members, officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any and all claims, expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs and settlement costs), damages, suits, costs, demands and/or judgments whatsoever, made by any third party due to or arising out of or in connection with: (a) your use of the Site; (b) your breach of this Agreement; (c) your violation of any rights of another individual and/or entity; and/or (d) your use of any products and/or services provided from an  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE Service Provider Affiliate. The provisions of this paragraph are for the benefit of  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE, its parent, subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, shareholders, licensors, suppliers and attorneys. Each of these individuals and entities shall have the right to assert and enforce these provisions directly against you on its own behalf.
7. Disclaimer of Warranties. THE SITE AND ANY PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE FROM ONE OF OUR SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES ARE PROVIDED TO YOU ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, ARE DISCLAIMED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE DISCLAIMER OF ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE). IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT AS A LIMITATION THEREOF,  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT: (A) THE SITE AND/OR PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES PROVIDED BY OUR SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS: (B) THE SITE AND/OR PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES PROVIDED BY OUR SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE; AND (C) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SITE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE. THE SITE MAY CONTAIN BUGS, ERRORS, PROBLEMS OR OTHER LIMITATIONS. WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE AVAILABILITY OF THE UNDERLYING INTERNET CONNECTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE SITE. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE, ONE OF ITS SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SITE, SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT.
8. Limitation of Liability. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND/OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW FOR: (A) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE AN  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE PRODUCT AND/OR SERVICE; (B) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION AND/OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED FROM THE SITE, THE SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE SITE, OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO, THROUGH OR FROM THE SITE OR A SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE SITE; AND (C) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SERVICE AND/OR SITE. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION, IN THE AGGREGATE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, MISREPRESENTATIONS, AND ANY AND ALL OTHER TORTS. YOU HEREBY RELEASE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE FROM ANY AND ALL OBLIGATIONS, LIABILITIES AND CLAIMS IN EXCESS OF THE LIMITATION STATED HEREUNDER. IF APPLICABLE LAW DOES NOT PERMIT SUCH LIMITATION, THE MAXIMUM LIABILITY OF  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE TO YOU UNDER ANY AND ALL CIRCUMSTANCES WILL BE EQUAL TO THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID, IF ANY, FOR  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES. YOU HEREBY RELEASE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE FROM ANY AND ALL OBLIGATIONS, LIABILITIES AND CLAIMS IN EXCESS OF THE LIMITATIONS SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION. THE NEGATION OF DAMAGES SET FORTH ABOVE IS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE. THIS SITE AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AVAILABLE THOUGH USE OF THE SITE WOULD NOT BE PROVIDED TO YOU WITHOUT SUCH LIMITATIONS.
9. Service Provider AffiliateWebsites. The Site provides links to Service Provider Affiliate and other third party Internet websites and/or resources. Because  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE has no control over such websites and/or resources, you hereby acknowledge and agree that  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE is not responsible for the availability of such websites and/or resources. Furthermore,  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE does not endorse, and is not responsible or liable for, any terms and conditions, privacy policies, content, advertising, services, products and/or other materials at or available from such Service Provider Affiliate and/or other third party websites or resources, or for any damages and/or losses arising therefrom.
10. Legal Warning. Any attempt by any individual, whether or not an  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE customer, to damage, destroy, tamper with, vandalize and/or otherwise interfere with the operation of this Site, is a violation of criminal and civil law and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE will diligently pursue any and all remedies in this regard against any offending individual or entity to the fullest extent permissible at law and in equity.
11. Miscellaneous. This Agreement shall be treated as though it were executed and performed in INSERT YOUR AREA HERE and shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of the Philippines (without regard to its conflict of law principles). Should a dispute arise concerning the terms and conditions of this Agreement, or the breach of same by either party hereto, the parties agree to submit their dispute for resolution by arbitration. Any award rendered shall be final and conclusive to the parties and a judgment thereon may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Nothing herein shall be construed to preclude any party from seeking injunctive relief in order to protect its rights pending an outcome in arbitration. Should any part of this Agreement be held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed consistent with applicable law and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. This Agreement is personal between you and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE and governs your use of the Site and/or any  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE service, superseding any and all prior and/or contemporaneous agreements between you and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE. To the extent that anything in or associated with the Site and/or any  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE service is in conflict or inconsistent with this Agreement, this Agreement shall take precedence. Our failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be deemed a waiver of such provision nor of the right to enforce such provision. The parties do not intend that any agency or partnership relationship be created through operation of this Agreement.
AUTHORIZATION BY OBTAINING, OR ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN, SERVICES THROUGH USE OF THE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SITE, YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS OF AGE.

Example of Privacy Policy Page:

INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE does not collect any user information. Information is collected by third party business partners only.

Step 7: If you can’t write, Outsource!

I have to admit that I suck at writing, especially if it is a topic that isn’t my interest. I’ve tried writing for several minisites but I noticed traffic to go up and start dropping over time. My writing is simply for search engines and not really for people, so my point here is that we should learn to admit it and start outsourcing. There are a lot of websites out there that offers this service, however I personally haven’t tried it myself as I hired my own writers. But I recommend outsourcing to keep costs down.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 5 PPC Ads (Google Adsense): Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 1 Domain Name: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

PPC ads with Google Adsense

PPC is the main life revenue stream of a minisite, if done correctly you could earn a lot of passive income. I use Google Adsense on all minisites as this is because it’s one of the easiest to apply to and is credible (it’s Google, you’ll get paid). What’s important is the CTR (Click Through Rate), which means that Out of how many people that come, how many of those click ads. So I’ll go thru my personal techniques to increase CTR.

Step 1: Where to place PPC ads

You have to think about where to place the ads in the page to ensure that it makes the most clicks. What you’d want is to place ads as close to the content as possible, however, I believe that you can’t just clutter all close to the content as it will look really dirty. You’d want to spread your ads around to make it look like a nice website than a minisite. My favorite areas to place ads are:

• Header (Usually placed beside the logo of the minisite)
• On top of content (Best to be on top of the title of the content or in the middle of the title and the actual content)
• Wrapped around the content (The paragraph wraps around the PPC ad)
• After Content (Bottom of each article / post)
• Sidebar (in the Widget section)

I don’t usually want everything cluttered into one area, it would be best to spread them all out to get the credibility of a website than a minisite.

Step 2: How many Ads are acceptable

You’re allowed to put 3 Ad units and 3 link units, provided that they’re not close to each other.

Ad Units can either be text or image or both, they come in variety of sizes. My favorite sizes are the 336×280, 300×250, 120×600 and 160×600. These are what I found most effective in my minisites.

Link ads are great as it can be blended in as normal links in a minisite, all it takes is blending it in the web design. My favorite sizes are 200×90, 728×15 and 468×15. When used well, these can earn a great deal of PPC revenues.

Step 3: Header

Ad Unit

Some WordPress themes allow you to ad ads beside the logo, either a 468×60 or 728×60 Ad Units. This is great as this is the part where it fits in the first load of the page (before scrolling). It gets a good number of clicks on my minisites.

Link Unit

If you look on the top part (black background) of the header, see how it’s disguised as links to the website but is actually link ads. Usually 728×15 or 468×15 would fit well on the header depending on the space allotted to you by the wordpress theme.

Step 4: On top of Content

Ad Unit

Ad units are great on top of the content, this is because it’s one of the places where the visitors would see first and in the area that they spend most time on. You could chose to have either an image, text or both ads in it. What’s recommended is that if it was text ads then it has to be the same font and color as the rest of the content in your minisite. I get great CTR on this but I found that Link ads do better in this area.

Link Ads

Link units are one of my favorite type of ads on top of the content, it can blend in so well that you won’t even notice that it’s an ad. There’s a special type of link ads that is one of my favorite that I use on almost all minisites that I build. It is the one that is the same as the image above. Here’s how to have it placed in your minisite:

!!!! Insert Google Adsense code Link Unit (200x90) here !!!!


 



!!!! Insert Google Adsense code Link Unit (200x90) here !!!!

All you need to do is first open the "Post Layout" under Settings in the right side of your dashboard. Copy and paste the code given above on the "Before the content" Section of Post Layout. You'll have a similar design as the image above (or like the one I have here in TechFilipino on top of this post).

Step 5: Wrapped Around the Content

Ad Units

What's great about this style is that as users fix their eyes on the content, the ads will also get a chance to capture their attention too. I found that it works well with those minisites that I have that has a lot of contents or text in it. Here's the code to wrap the content around the PPC ad:

!!!! Insert Google Adsense code Ad Unit (336x280 or 300x250) here !!!!

All you need to do is first open the "Post Layout" under Settings in the right side of your dashboard. Copy and paste the code given above on the "Before the content" Section of Post Layout. Make sure to check a post to see if the ad is in the right place. A 336x280 or 300x250 would fit well in this area.

Link Units don't really fit in this area (in my opinion).

Step 6: After the Content

Ad Unit

This is probably one of the supporting ads in the list, end of article usually isn't the most effective but can do pretty well to support the top PPC ads. I personally use 468x60 Text and Image ads in this, as I found that it doesn't need too much scroll (than the taller ones) and can fit pretty well with the content. All you need to do is first open the "Post Layout" under Settings in the right side of your dashboard. Copy and paste the code given above on the "After the content" Section of Post Layout. Check a post to see if the ad is in the right place.

Link Unit

I don't really use this much anymore as I use two link ads on the header, but usually you could add a link ad that are 468x60 on the bottom of the post. Again my thought is always, the less the scroll the better it can be seen or clicked.

Step 7: Sidebar

Ad Unit

Ad Units are the most effective in the sidebar. You could add ad units like 336x280, 300x250, 120x600 and 160x600 (Depending on the width of the sidebar). I always use both text and image ads for my sidebar ads. Depending on the width of the sidebar and how many columns are available are all what you need to consider when you choose the ad size. You can add these ads by using the Widget function (under "Appearance") and using the text widget to insert the Google Adsense code.

Link Unit

Link Units fit only to themes that have a very narrow sidebar. All you need is simply follow the background color and the text color for the ad and it should work out well for you. It is going to look more like navigation which will encourage accidental clicks.

Step 8: AD Design

Whenever I make ads, what I usually think about is the the color of the text and the background. Your main goal is to blend the ad in the minisite, so that it doesn't distract readers too much. This can be done by using the same background color as the website and the font color of the closeby texts. The more the ads look like normal links, the more people are more likely to click it.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 - Domain Name
• Part 2 - Installing WordPress
• Part 3 - Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 - WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 - PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 - Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 3 Configuring WordPress – Configuration / PlugIns : Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 2 Installing WordPress: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

Free WordPress Themes for your Minisite

A lot of WordPress themes are free online, all you need is time and patience to find the right theme for you. What I always think when I do this is that I don’t want to make my minisite look like a minisite. Why? Simply because people don’t trust minisites and with the amount of minisites out there, it does get people turned off when they see one. The solution is to use WordPress to cover the design up to either make it look like a magazine or a blog site which can retain the attention of your visitors. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Search of WordPress Themes

I always want my wordpress themes unique and uncommon to the eyes of internet surfers. So I do spend a few days looking for a good theme online, I usually think about how I would like it to look if I was a user and then look for an appropriate theme. Here are examples of how I search for WordPress themes:

• Free Unique WordPress themes
• 2010 WordPress themes
• TOPIC WordPress themes – TOPIC refers to the topic of the keyword you’re targetting (e.g. Printer WordPress themes)

Try to find the most unique theme that you feel suits your minisite well. Do think about what you’re going to be adding like images, ads and how contents and the layout will be done. What I usually go for is something that I haven’t seen much before on other websites or blogs. The more unique the theme is the better it will stand out.

OR you could also use WordPress’ recommended themes which can be easily done with going to “Appearance” > “Add New Themes”. The advantage with this method is that it only requires the click of install and it’s automatically installed in your WordPress Minisite.

**Note: When downloading WordPress themes, make sure to download from the original maker of the wordpress theme. Some contains malicious codes which allows hackers to hijack your site. Be careful when downloading.

Step 2: Assess the top 3 WordPress Themes

Upload your top 3 chosen themes in your WordPress folder (under wp-content > themes), and try to run each script. Check the following:

• Is it easy to post?
• Images in post easily displayed in homepage? (I hate having to add my own custom fields)
• Can you change the logo?
• Is this what your visitors want to see?

You need to go thru the theme by trying to post a simple one paragraph article with image. And if you can do that easily even display the image in the homepage then that’s the right theme for you, if it gets too complicated move on to the next theme. Choose one theme.

Step 3: Designing minisite’s Logo and Favicon

After choosing the wordpress theme, some have a built in logo that copies the Blog Name and Description you placed in the settings while some don’t. For those that barely knows how to design, I’d recommend sticking to the Blog Name and Description for the logo. If you’ve chosen the ones that need a new logo replacement, then some technical skill would be required. You need Photoshop or GIMP application to have a decent logo.

I’m not great at graphics and quite honestly I suck at it. So the best thing to do is to get nice looking logos from the website called LogoInstant which has some great graphics that can be downloaded (PSD) and used for free for whatever purpose. The best thing about it is that it is editable in photoshop so you just need to use the images to make yourself a nice looking logo for your minisite.

As for the Favicon for you minisite, all you need is to go to Free Favicon and submit the picture that you want as favicon and it’ll generate a favicon for you. You then need to go to WordPress, upload the favicon on your site (Media > Add New). Get the link of your favicon (check details after uploading and copy the link).

The link to your favicon should be pasted in the Favicon URL, and click save changes. Try to open the web page of your minisite and see if it shows up in your browser.

Step 4: SideBar Widgets

Most of the wordpress themes come with a sidebar widget, this is really useful and helpful for a Minisite. These are my recommended Widgets that you can add:

• 1 PPC AD (336×280 or 300×250) – best to have it on top of the sidebar. Drag “Text” to the sidebar and copy and paste the Google Adsense / PPC code for the ad to the text box.
• Pages
• Recent Posts
• Search
• Categories
• Tag Cloud

You don’t need to add all of them, what’s important is that the sidebar isn’t too short but rather something that stretches the whole page. You don’t need to add everything above, but instead add what you think that would fit.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 3 Configuring WordPress – Configuration / PlugIns : Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 2 Installing WordPress: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 5 PPC Ads (Google Adsense): Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

Configuring WordPress for Minisite

I love using WordPress for minisites as it takes a very short time to configure and make a good minisite. The best thing is that the design is all free, thanks to free themes online. However, simply installing it and just using it normally isn’t enough, you have to know how to effectively use it to make a minisite and to make it more effective with search engines.

Step 1: Add a new user

After installing WordPress on your domain, you’re given a username of admin and a randomly generated password. Just for added security I would often change my username to something else, so first step I recommend is to create a new admin account. The purpose here is that a lot of WordPress that are hacked uses the username “admin” in their account which makes it really easy for hackers to get into. Make sure that the Role is set to “Administrator”. After successfully creating one, log out and log in to your account.

Step 2: Delete the other admin user account

In your WordPress’ Dashboard, look for the Users tab located on the left side of WordPress. Choose “Authors & Users”, put your mouse over the username “admin” and click the delete link to delete the account.

Step 3: Add the necessary Plugins

What you need to do is to install all the necessary plugins that will help you. You simply just need to look for the Plugins tab on the right side, and click the “Add new” link.

The best thing about wordpress is that it’s not complicated to install these plugins, it just takes a single click. What you simply need to do is to search the following plugins and click install (just like the image above):

• Akismet (Filters Spam comments)
• All in one SEO pack (Helpful to get your ranking in search engines)
• Contact Form 7 (If you need a contact form in your minisite)
• Google XML Sitemaps (Needed to direct Search Engine Bots to the right places in your minisite)
• Post Layout (Add codes in different sections of posts and pages, great for ads!)
• Shockingly Simple FavIcon (Add Favicon to your minisite)
• Statpress (See your Minisite’s Stats)
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (Show related posts)

For me, these are pretty much all the basic plugins that you’ll need to make your minisite more effective. All of these are free and can be easily downloaded thru WordPress. All you have to do now is to install and activate all the plugins.

Step 4: Configuration of WordPress

After you activate all the plugins in the list, you’ll find that a lot of them would be needing some configuration before you can actually use them. But I’ve developed my own step by step configuration by starting off with WordPress configuration and then to the plugins.

1. WordPress Configuration – Look for the settings tab on the left side of your dashboard (In wp-admin) and look for the following links:

1.1 “General”

Under General Settings, you just need to configure the Blog Title and Tagline.

• Blog Title – I usually put the main topic of the minisite, or the domain name of the minisite. (e.g. Printercart.net = Printer Cart)
• Tag Line – Place the main keyword that you’re targetting. (e.g. PrinterCart.net = Best Printer Carts)

1.2 “Writing”

In Writing, there’s not much you need to setup except the Update Services section on the bottom. This is basically to help you update different websites when you do update your site. Here’s the list that you should copy / paste and save in your settings:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

http://www.newsisfree.com/

1.3 “Permalinks”

As for the settings for Permalinks, all you need is to change the permalinks to “Custom Structure” and copy and paste ” /%postname%/ ” to the area. This is helpful for seo as it fixes your internal links. (e.g. http://minisiteURL.com/date/title = http://minisiteURL.com/title). After this you’re done with WordPress configurations, congratulations!

2. Plugin Configurations – You’d need to configure some of the plugins to make sure that it gives the best possible result.

2.1 “Akismet”

Akismet is one of the best plugins to filter spams, this is one of the most useful plugins that you’ll ever need. (I get hundreds of spams in a day! this gets them all out) All you need is to create an account in WordPress.com and copy and paste the “key” in your profile page. You could click the “What is this?” link to get more information. You should get a confirmation like the one above that they key is valid.

2.2 “All-in-one SEO”

In All-in-One SEO just needs the following configuration:

• Plugin Status – Choose Enabled
• Home Title – Place the keywords that you’re targetting (e.g. Printer Carts)
• Home Description – Expand the keywords but make sure to reuse the main keyword. (e.g. Best Printer Carts in the World)
• Home Keywords – Go to Google Adwords Keyword tool External, Choose the right (Place especially for ccTLD, and type the keyword in). Choose the keywords that have enough searches and type it down here and separate them with a comma. (e.g. Printer carts, printer cart, hp printer carts, …)

2.3 “Yet Another Related Posts Plugin”

It is pretty simple, all you have to do is to lower the match threshold to 1 and copy the settings in the image above. I usually just consider the Bodies for matches this is to make sure that the related posts will show other posts especially if you have only a few post in your minisite.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 2 Installing WordPress: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 5 PPC Ads (Google Adsense): Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

WordPress

The best thing about WordPress is that it has a very easy and simple admin interface which could be easily learned. But the best thing about it is that there are so many free plug-ins and themes available online that you can use freely and support is readily available and is answered by not only WordPress itself but also other experts who’re willing to lend a hand to everyone. I’ve used wordpress for around 2 years now and it’s always worked out for me.

Step 1: Get a decent WebHosting Company

I personally use A2Hosting ever since I started my online ventures, the best thing with them is that they have unlimited accounts which can pretty much fit all your domains for around $10 (cheaper with coupon codes, only $6.36 per month). Before you go thru and purchase web hosting with them, make sure that you check the web for “Coupon Codes”, this way you could get huge discounts to their services. I was able to save as much as 30% monthly on hosting services when I entered the coupon codes. The best part is their reliability, I’ve never had a problem with downtimes (until recently when there’s a problem with their servers lately which got a good few hours of downtime) but aside from that it’s been smooth sailing. Make sure to really get a reliable and good web hosting service for your minisites, remember if it’s down then traffic can’t go in, no traffic no earnings.

Step 2: Linking your Domain to your Web Hosting

1. Login to your Godaddy account (The top part of the Homepage)

2. Choose “Domain Manager” (It’s on the left side of the page after logging in)

3. Choose a Domain in the list and click “Name server” on the top of your domain list. Choose “I have specific nameservers for my domains” and enter your name server 1 and 2 in the list. You’ll normally get this thru your web hosting provider. For those who have went with A2Hosting, the name servers are 1 – ns1.a2webhosting.com and 2 – ns2.a2webhosting.com . Click OK and the settings should be saved and you’ll get a confirmation email that the name servers have been changed.

Step 3: Adding a domain in your web hosting

I’m not really sure whether all web hosting providers would have the same cPanel interface in their hosting service. But what I use in A2Hosting is cPanel, so after logging in and what you need to look for is Addon Domains. Click “Addon Domains”

Fill up the information details, Enter the Domain, Username (login username to cpanel) and password (login password to cpanel). You don’t need to input the document root as the system will do it for you. Wait until, it successfully added the domain in the list.

Congratulations, You’ve successfully linked your domain and web hosting! **NOTE: There are some delays in linking domains to webhosting, so do give it a few hours or a day to link, if it doesn’t work contact your domain supplier and web hosting provider.

Step 4: Installing WordPress

Don’t be intimidated by the word install, it’s not really that complicated. WordPress calls their installation the 5 minutes WordPress Installation and it truly does take 5 minutes or less (after you’ve done it once). Most web hosting have a feature called Fantastico, which automatically does it all in a few simple steps. I personally don’t use Fantastico and do it manually. Here’s how I do it:

1. Go to WordPress.org and download the latest Free WordPress copy

2. Choose File Manager in your cPanel’s Homepage.

3. Choose “www” on the left side navigation of the file manager page. And choose the folder of your domain (for example, PrinterCart.net would have a folder with the exact name).

4. Once you entered the folder, usually it’s empty as there’s no file in the new folder. Upload your newly downloaded WordPress copy by click the “Upload” button on the top of the file manager. Upload the full exact ZIP file, as the server can extract it for you. Once finished uploading, click the checkbox of WordPress ZIP file and click extract.

5. Usually it will create a new folder called WordPress, what you need to do is:

• Go into the folder of WordPress
• Choose “Select all”
• Choose “Move File”
• Check the directory and delete the /Wordpress part.
• It should empty the WordPress folder and move all the files to your domain’s homepage.

To verify if this actually worked, go to the domain that you’ve added to the list. You should get a “WordPress Error” Page which states that you should install it. If you did see it, then congratulations, you’ve finished setting up your wordpress minisite.

6. Choose “MySQL Database” in the Database list in your cPanel homepage.

7. Add a new database, and name it as you want.

8. After getting a confirmation that you’ve successfully added a new database, open your domain‘s URL. Example: PrinterCart.net and you should see an WordPress Error Message which will prompt you to install WordPress.

9. Copy and paste the database that you’ve recently created to the “Database name”. Username and password is the same username and password that you use to login to your cPanel. While Database Host and Table Prefix needs no changes. Continue to fill up the form until WordPress gives you your admin username and password (which you’ll need to login to your WordPress Account). Once done, you’ll find that you’ll be able to login to your WordPress Dashboard and be able to control wordpress from there.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 3 Configuring WordPress – Configuration / PlugIns : Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 1 Domain Name: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

When I was starting out, I’ve went thru so many different techniques of how to make money online with minisites. One thing that I noticed is that everyone has their own way or version on how to do it. But over time I’ve developed my own systematic way on how to make money with minisites using PPC. It is pretty straight forward, you don’t really need a lot of expensive scripts or programs, all you need is a little patience and willingness to learn more about it. Here’s my Ultimate Guide in Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC.

Domain Name

Minisites need traffic to make money off it, one of the best and cheapest way to get traffic is thru Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The best thing about domain names is that even without work, it commands a good Search Engine Position by just the domain name alone. So the first step is choosing the right Domain name that will boost your traffic thru SEO, here are the methods that I go thru:

Use Google Keyword Tool External

Step 1: Search for a topic that you’re interested in

Â

There are two things that you do have to take note of, one is the keyword and the other is the area. As for the keyword, just type in the keyword in the text area. The keyword can be a general topic and don’t worry, Google will narrow it down for you and find topics for you to choose from. As for the area (Refer to image above: English, United States), it comes down to what domain you chose.

• .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO, .ME, etc. are considered gTLD (Global Top Level Domains)
• .PH, .SG, .US, .CA, . TV, .MX etc. are considered ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domains)

If you chose gTLDs then you simply choose English, United States and if you chose a ccTLD then you have to choose the corresponding country of the domain (e.g. .PH = Philippines). The reason for this is that ccTLDs only command high SEO in the local searches only, for example, digitalcamera.ph will only rank highly in the Philippines. The only advantage of ccTLDs is that there’s a lot of availability for registration and you get to dominate a certain country’s searches.

Step 2: Examine Results

Â

One of the first things that you have to do is to change the “Match Type” to “Exact”, the reason for this is that Google gives you, as default, broad searches which basically adds up the keywords as long as it was typed in the search bar. What you need are specific searches, people who are specifically typing in Google the exact keyword, in the example above what we’re looking for are people who’re typing “Printer” in the search bar. Remember being specific is what will propel your minisite in SEO. **NOTE: You can arrange the searches from the top searches to the bottom by clicking the title bar of each column. Also, the result may not always be accurate, as for example, searches for flowers might be high in February but low in other months.

Step 3: You don’t need to manually type it in

Scroll down to the bottom of the search results, you’ll find “Download Keywords” button. What this means is that it allows you to download all the results above to a notepad file. After downloading, open the file and all you need to do is Copy all keywords (Select All then Copy — **Shortcut: CTRL / CMD A then CTRL / CMD C).

Step 4: Go to Godaddy’s Bulk Domain Registration

Paste all that you copied from the text file you downloaded to the text area provided by Godaddy’s text area. Check which domains you’d like to register, I personally would recommend going after .COM, .NET, .INFO or .ORG, as I’ve experienced higher earnings from these domains. And click “Search”. **NOTE: You’ll see a lot of Error messages after searching, simply scroll down till you see the box and all the available domains will be listed. Also, steer away from brand names and trademarked names, as you can be sued for using their name.

Step 5: Check results

After searching thru GoDaddy’s results, I found that PrinterCart.net is available. So you need to see how much searches does this keyword get, I did a “Find” function with your browsers (Shortcut: CTRL F / CMD F) and typed the keyword to search in the results to take me quickly to the exact keyword (it’s faster than manually browsing thru the whole list).

Step 6: Asses Searches and Competitors

To assess how many competitors you have, do an exact search of the keyword in Google Search. This can be done by adding the Quotes (“”) to the searches, in the example above, searching for “printer cart” rather than printer cart. What you really need to know is how many results are there in the search engine. There are many discussions and rules on how to go about doing it, but I personally have my own way. My way is:

• Searches: Must be 3000 and above
• Competition: Must be 100,000 and below

I’ve assessed that domains that I registered that matches the criteria above gave me great results, while the ones that don’t, don’t earn as much.

Step 7: Know how much Cost Per Ad clicked (Earnings on ad clicks) for PPC

Go to Google’s Traffic Estimator Sandbox, you’ll see the page similar to the image above. Type in the keyword with the Quotes (“”), and select all countries and territories on the bottom (except if you chose a ccTLD, then chose the specific country).

Look at the column of “Estimated Avg. CPC”, that’s pretty much how much a click can earn you. The question is, Is it worth my Time? The answer to this can only answered by you alone. Think about how much money are you looking to earn per minisite, Here’s my personal formula:

Traffic X CPC X 5% (Average CTR) = Earnings per month

 

In the case of Printer Cart, it is 4400 x $1.71 x 5% = $376 / month. But you see I’m estimating that you get all the 4400 traffic, so that’s the maximum earnings you can reach each month with the domain, PrinterCart.net.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 3 Configuring WordPress – Configuration / PlugIns : Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 6 Writing Minisite Contents: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

There are a lot of established players in this area, you have Morgan Linton, Bruce Marler, Rick Latona, Owen Fragger etc. All of them having great income generated from domaining and each having a great domain sales / development story to tell. Are a lot of them rich? I believe so, they do travel the world to spread domaining and have been quite successful at it. But they’ve started a while back, right?

Us, Rich from Domaining?

So for the rest of us who have just started recently (a year is still recent for me that is), will domaining make us rich? The answer is really both yes and no. No, and it’s really not about missing the domaining boat in the 90′s but it is because we don’t focus or make it into a part time job / hobby. Yes (it will make you rich), if you risk big (meaning buying off great domains at good prices, either hundreds or thousands) and selling or developing the domain for you to monetize. Focus on the great and invest instead of collecting. For me, how I intend to get rich from it is by focusing on a few domains and focusing on development and monetization of those few domains. Focus is pretty much the key to success to domaining, without it, monetizing is way too hard.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Is Domaining a one man team?
2. How Should Domaining.com Monetize?
3. How to Focus in Domaining

One of the best things about .PH and .COM.PH domains is that it somehow felt like the 90′s where a lot of premium generic keyword domains are still available for hand registration. Here I experienced how it would be like owning one of the premium domains and how it really ranks you high in Search Engines.

My recommendations to dotPH

Marketing support

Everyone in the Philippines has started to love our country more, people are becoming more patriotic towards our country (unlike before that it was only about US or imports). It would be nice if they can sponsor events, make print ads or do more promotions to raise awareness on why use .PH or .COM.PH. You do have a Why.PH, why not expand it to offline print ads to get the support of more people to invest or to develop their websites with your domains. We’d love to see more promotion and ads to encourage people to get into .PH.

Unregistered domains list

Andre have told me about a website that used to list all the unregistered domains with traffic before. What would be nice is if dotPH could release a website like that but instead on focusing on traffic, it would be all the dictionary word domains listed in it. That way you promote what is still unregistered and encourage or entice people to register it first. Developers are constantly on the look out for domains they can use on their projects (which they don’t have an idea on what to name).

Lower Registration / Renewal Fees

Registration Fees are really high, I understand that with high fees comes more quality and serious developers. But the problem is it attracts domainers like us into it and discourages a lot of developers in the process. A lot of web developers I know of, have a great plan on how they intend to develop but are discouraged by the registration fees compared to .COM or .NET. It would be great you can lower fees (but I’m not saying that you should drop it down to .COM prices) or do a promotion once in a while to encourage more people to join. I’ve also had a message from disappointed domainer, that he’s about to lose his big client since he can’t use his prepaid credits (as a registrar) to renew his domains. (I still am waiting for a reply from dotPH for this matter) But if this is so then it is unacceptable as we did pay for it a lot.

Payment Options

In the Philippines, a lot of people still don’t trust the web. They think of the web as a dark place that is full of hackers and their data is always at risk. But the great thing is that Paypal is doing a great job getting them to purchase online. It would be nice if dotPH could start to accept different payment options which can really help them decide faster.

Advancement of system

Right now, as a registrar, you need Internet Explorer to go to the admin. But I use Ubuntu and MAC, I feel that it would be great to have a cross browser support since when I purchased my registrar credits the person I spoke to said that you’re working on having it work on FireFox. I’m not saying that you should be able to make it like Godaddy’s (which if you can, that would be really really great), but, at least, show us that you’re improving the system and it would be easier for us to use it. Just imagine owning 100 or 1000+ domains and try changing the nameserver one by one.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. DotPH releases new Registrar Console, different browsers are now compatible and multiple nameserver editing!
2. Observations with my dotPH investments in .ph and .com.ph domains
3. dotPH using unregistered and unused (.COM.PH, .PH, .NET.PH, .ORG.PH) domain names for online advertising for companies